....or i could just say, suck it up people, i will write you one now, and you will love it, because i said so. yep, that's right. I think we shall go with option 'B'. So suck on that. :)
Now, to the stories, quit pouting and enjoy :)
So after my last blog post the week obviously consisted of going to class and doing all the assignments that were necessary for the classes. go figure. I bet you would never have figured that out on your own if it wasnt for me as your informit. You're welcome.
My teacher came in to tell us that we needed to do some story telling for one of our classes and when I asked her where I would find these stories, she promptly told me that they were on the class's yahoo group. THE CLASS HAS A YAHOO GROUP?? yep, apparently it's been going all semester and that is where al the vital information is kept for students to find out. I am pretty sure they gathered around in a pow wow type format and said "wouldn't it be funny if we didn't invite the whitey into the group and watch her get confused as to why she can't figure shit out. Pretty sure that is how it went down. Or possibly nothing like that at all. Actually it probably was just a lack in communication, however if i told it to you that way you wouldn't pay attention. So it turns out I have learnt the big lessons in life from Steph. Always embelish :).
So anyhoo, part of the week was spent trying to be invited to this yahoo group which the teacher kept forgetting to do which meant i couldn't do m assignments. Such. A. Shame. NOT!
Having dropped one of my classes (hells yeah!!) I found I have quite a bit more time on my hand so I began cleaning and mopping the house whilst listening to spanish tapes, and pretending that I was a naturally fluent spanish speaker. I may have also listened to music and had a dance with the mop. I guess we will never get to the bottom of that one.
So after scrubbing the floors down nice and shinily, I walked bare feet across the ground and by the end of the day the bottoms of my feet were black from dirt. Turned out clean floors do not last in a city with so much air pollution. Doh.
Saturday rocked around and Tania and I went to another Salinlahi volunteer day. Today they had a group of kids that had been practising a performance/play about the eneds of kids and the inflation of the cost of groceries and how this affects them. This was to go hand in hand with a petition needing to be signed to let the government know that people weren't ok with the high prices.
So we arrived at the salinlahi office and watched the kids practising their performance. They would cheekily look over and both Tania and I and shout "Black beauty, White beauty" which ofcourse led tania to whisper in her best ghetto voice "Why can't it just be beauty, why do they have to bring colour into it??" For all of you who know Tania, it's always about the colour ;)
The day was pretty amazing, we jumped into the Jeepney with the kids and drove for about an hour or so to gt into the heart of the city markets. We would set up at random venues out front of the stalls where the kids would put on their performance as the other workers would try to get vendors and customers to sign the petition. The kids did amazing performances. Tan and I felt a little useless for most of the day as for legal reasons we were not allowed to be involved with holding the pamphlets or getting people to sign forms (due to international affairs and such) and therefore were the designated prop holders for the performances for the kids, and got to spend the better part of the day just mucking around with them, and keeping an eye on them while the workers searched for people to sign the petitions.
We took the kids back to the jeepney and while waiting for the other workers, we began a jam session with them. It's amazing how talented every Filipino I have met is when it comes to musicality. I am pretty sure its some kind of genetic thing. If you are Filipino, you rock at music. Now excuse me while I go meet my contact at the black market, perhaps he can arranged this gene for me.
So after our long day in the sun (and boy oh boy was it hot) we set off in the evening to head to B-side, which is a warehouse club to meet up with some friends. Cathy had made a friend who is an amazing artist and had alot of his work there, so we listened to the music and chilled a bit.
We then headed out to 'The Fort' to experience possibly one of the best nights I have had here in Manila. We went to a venue surrounded by talented artists and performerr. There was fire poi, and hoolah hoops and juggling and amazingly talented musicians and tap dancers and there was fire and lights everywhere. Did i mention that there was also free booze?
We chilled and watched the performers (one amazing fire poi/eater from Argentina was there too.....:D ) and took in the entire evening. I am pretty sure I fell in love with the entire scene. Words can't describe how good it was.
I may have also gotten into a conversation with a Filipino guy about how I was utterly sure he was aprt of the mafia, and nothing he said or did could prove me otherwise. Pretty sure he is in the mafia....just saying...possibly the head of it...I think that is my decision :P Also pretty sure he was thinking ' who the heck is this crazy white chick telling me that I am in the mafia??? since when did i join the mafia???'
So sunday night rocked around and with not alot to do I decided to check out the church with Tania, as it is such a part of the Filipino culture, and it would be silly of me to not explore as much as I can about the culture before I leave here. So i did. It was interesting, but establishes exactly for me that church and the christian faith doesn't reside within me personally. But a Filipino experience none the less.
Tan and I headed out to the movies after that, however while we were getting dinner a friend of ours rang to ask us if we were ok. Turns out from her apartment she can see our subdivision and informed us of about 6 different fire trucks parked outside and smoke everywhere. We scurried home to find that it was a commune nearby our house that had experienced a gas tank explosion. There were so many families all huddled out on the streets, it was insane, but thankfully no one was hurt.
Monday night we went as a housemate group to see the movie 'This means War', which by the way was FREAKING HILARIOUS!!! we couldn't stop laughing and it was good to hang out all together as it had been a while.
Wednesday night Tania and I invited our German friends over for dinner and we cooked delicious fajitas. om nom nom nom. We had such an amazing night hanging out together and I decided that I would detour in Europe to stop over in Germany to all hang out. So exciting. Once they left we had the arrival of our new housemate, Alex, who is one of Tania's friends from Australia coming to volunteer around south east asia.
We all joined in on the community organising class on the Thursday (Alex included) and had to act out role plays of how we would intervene and join in communities to create positive changes. My group hadn't had a chance to rehearse ours so we just winged it, only problem was that they did it all in tagalog, and would then look to me for input into the conversation. I think I gave the best smiling and nodding anyone has ever seen. I don't think i portrayed a person in poverty at all, and on occasion someone would whisper tagalog words in my ear which i would pipe up and say. Pretty sure I can now say 'planting is no joke'. That's right, you heard me, I am a master of languages!!
That night we went out for mexican with Cath, me, Tan, Christine, Alex and one of Cath's friends from Aus. It was just a good relax night of chillin, eating and jamming when we returned home. I went to bed pretty late and woke up earlier the next day to find that Tania and Alex had spent the entire night talking and catching up on things back home that neither of them had slept a wink. Pretty sure they made a bit of a fort out of couches also.
So sleep deprived Tania, Alex and wide awake me, headed off into Makati with Cath to visit our previous housemate Erin after her trip in Palawan. We got to meet some of ehr friends (which we had heard so many stories about) however didn't get to stay long as we had to head off to the airport to stay in Boracay for the weekend (woo woo!!!)
So we arrived at the airport and as we were waiting in the departures area Tania turns to Alex and I to ask what seat number we were sitting in. She happily exclaims that she is in row 25. Alex answers saying that he is in row 17, and catching on quickly I do the same. Poor Tan was so confused as to why she was sitting by herself. She makes a few remarks about racism (as she does) and she makes her way to enter from the back of the plane as we board from the front. We got on the plane before Tania and quickly scurried to row 25 and hid down low in our seats. Tania was excited about making new friends and was curious as to who she was going to be sitting next to. She saw two whiteys and it took her a few seconds to realise the joke we had played on her, and that we were in fact all sitting together and the airline wasn't racist at all. Pretty sure we found it HILARIOUSLY funny.
We arrived into Kalibo airport and jumped on a van to drive us to Caticlan. The van had it's tinted windows with cut outs of batmans symbol which provided much amusement, and we drove for a good hour and a half before arriving to the port. We were told that the price we paid would cover all of our boat fares, however, as always happens in the Philippines, additional costs end up sneaking their way in.
After our short boat trip then trike trip we arrived on Boracay beach.
We hadn't exactly made any plans about where we were going to stay once we arrived on boracay, but we thought we would wander around and find a hostel or resort. Unfortunately we arrived at 10:30 when all the resorts admin areas closed at 10pm, so we decided the best option was to lay out sarongs on the sand, cuddle our backpacks and sleep on the sand and drift to sleep listening to the live acoustic bands that line the beach front of Boracay.
We were meeting friends on Boracay beach and they managed to find us lying on the beach at about 12pm, and assured us that we could not sleep on the beach and that they would re-arrange their cabins so that we could stay with them for the night. Nawww, aren't they lovely. So after chatting on the sand for a while we headed back to their resort and stayed in their cabins.
The next morning we woke up and all went to get breakfast together. mmm eggs on toast.
The group split up for the day and I went with Alex and Micky (a new German friend of ours) to suss out some snorkelling while Tania, Mara, Hanna, Thomas and Mike headed to do some relaxing on the beach.
Alex, Micky and I headed to the back beaches where we were told that you could do some cheap and good snorkelling, however when we got there the water was exceptionally choppy and the shore line was overtaken by kite surfers and snorkelling didn't appear to be an option today. So instead we went for a walk along the sand watching the kite surfers (thought about joining in until we heard the price!) and just got to know each other better.
We stopped off for lunch at a small cafe and headed back to the main beach for a swim.
The water on Boracay is almost clear and has a beautiful light blue glow to it during the day, it is truly amazing, and the water wasn't cold in the slightest, infact it was perfect for swimming.
We then wandered up the beach to find the others sitting in a small hut having a few drinks, we joined them for some food and drinks and good conversation (or atleast i deem it fabulous conversation when harry potter comes up!) and the tv under the bar was playing the final harry potter movie. Where do i look??? at harry or at the sunset??? ohhhh the choices and hard decisions in life!! hehe.
The sunset won out and there was a beautiful golden glow that covered the beach for a few short minutes. We had a few more drinks to cover the tab and then headed back to the main beach to chill.
Tania, Alex and I headed up the beach further and stopped outside a bar that had a fire poi show on. It was incredible how talented people are, and the show even turned into a syncronised dance. Alex got a lovely personal show from his 'fire-poi-fairy-boy' who gave him an extra special wink.
We ended up sitting outside of Boom-Boom bar (brilliant acoustic musicians on the foreshore) having a few rum and cokes. I headed with Thomas and Mike to check out a few of the dance bars. We had a few drinks and giggled at each other and other patrons, watching them try to exude sexuality to land themselves a foreigner. I tried to explain the pout face to Thomas which ended in hilarious conversations and the night also resulted in him having a shimmy and asking randoms about their thoughts on lady boys. as you do.
So after Mike went home, Thomas and I headed back to the resort as well, we went into our room to see if Tania and Alex were still awake which they were. We continued to try and teach Thomas about the pouty face calling it the 'come hither' face. With translation difficulties our lovely Austrian Thomas turns to look at us and says "what? come hitler? who is hitler?" which ofcourse through giggles you had Tania trying to say, 'no Thomas, you can't say that!'
Anyhoo, after much giggling we went to bed. The next day we all decided that we would attempt snorkelling a second time except this time hire a boat to take us to the good snorkelling spots. We went out on the boat and the first place we found was far to choppy to get off the boat to snorkel, so we headed for a new destination.
This time we jumped off the boat and swam around with the fishies :)
The fish and coral wasn't as impressive as I had seen it in Puerto Galera or other places, but it was still of course lots of fun and beautiful.
We headed then to a secluded beach where we found kids jumping off the side of a rock/cliff. So naturally, we wanted to join in on that too. We docked the boat on the shore and went and started talking to the kids. They were wonderful and lead us up to the cliff where we proceeded to take turns in jumping off. The kids would yell words of encouragement, as would we for them and each other, and just having so much fun.
We headed out onto the beach and Tania had started up a game with the kids of them running around on the sand. They loved it so much and it was so much fun to watch them go.
Unfortunately then we had to leave and go to our final snorkelling destination. Which was deeper than the first, and I thought much more pretty. In general I love to be in the water. I can't wait to do some scuba diving around some of the reefs on Palawan (and ship wrecks!!)
We headed back for the night and said goodbye to our lovely German, Austrian and token Filipino friends as the made their way to their long bus home (their ferry got cancelled at the last minute) and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening lying on the sand and stargazing listening to the acoustic music once again.
We also decided it would be a great opportunity to go get a massage, so we headed in to a massage parlour.
The massages were amazing, as we were made into human pretzels. Pretty sure that is the first time someone has managed to crack my back. The girls in there were very lovely and we had a good old chat to them about their studies (one was earning money to complete her studies in criminology!) and during the massage they proceeded to take an interest in alex. I also got questioned as to whether he was my boyfriend. I think when they see two white people within the same vicinity, they assume that they must be together. They didn't even ask Tania (RACIST!). It was pretty amusing.
The next day we rose early to say our goodbyes to Boracay and make our way back to the airport, and then back home. All pretty exhausted we predominantly bummed for the rest of the day.
And that brings us to yesterday, Tuesday. I headed to my classes in the morning as per usual and of course my teacher didn't show up again (she has missed 15 classes out of 30..) and went in the afternoon with Alex to get a phone at the shopping center and to get my computer fixed.
On the train ride home we took bumped into some other westerners who appeared to be lost, so we struck up conversation with them. I recognised the Canadian guy as someone who lived in our subdivision so we all made the journey home together, and thus made new friends with a Canadian guy, an Austrian guy (whose mission in the Philippines was to grow a wicked moustache) and an American girl. We exchanged numbers and will probably catch up with them this week.
THE END!
Now i must go scurry off to do some assignment work. sigh.
I hope that my tales are enough to keep you happy for the time being, next installment I will have information for you on working with children in conflict with the law, and also swimming with whale sharks ;)
Peace love and mung beans duuuuuuude
Love B xoxo
shimmy, pout, hither... i learned new vocabulary...thanks to the dictionary, haha
ReplyDeletesuch mistakes wouldnt happen again :-)